Improvement in methods of manufacturing corsets



HARRIET a. EMERY.

a Method of Manufacturing Corsets.

N0 lfil ol'g V v Patented March 23,1875.

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HARRIET Gr. EMERY, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN METHODS OF MANUFACTURING CORSETS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 161,019, dated March23, 1875; application filed October 27, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRIET G. EMERY, of Boston, in the State ofMassachusetts, have invented an Improved Method and Means for ObtainingMeasurements in the Manufacture of Childrens and Womens Under-Jackets orCorsets; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken in connectionwith the drawings which accompany and form part of this specification,is a description of my invention sufficorsets by furnishing a definitesystem of measurements and means for obtaining the same, by'which chancecutting and the loss consequent thereon maybe avoided, but also tofurnish to merchants and consumers regular gradations of sizes adaptedin the breadth at the shoulders and in the size of the waist (andconsequently at the intermediate points) to any age and size of person,the main things required to be ascertained from the purchaser being thenumber of inches around the shoulders, and also the number of inchesaround the waist in order that the merchant may take from his shelvesthe garment of a size and shape to fit the person. The anatomical lawupon which this system is based is that the Waist and abdomen of afemale child develop very early to a size nearly, if not quite, equal tothat of mature years, while the breadth across the shoulders does notdevelop so early or rapidly, but on the contrary goes on steadilyincreasing until reaching its greatest breadth. This law, as regards thewaist, is sometimes in terfered with by tight lacing and other causes,

so that occasionally adult women have waists smallerithan when they werechildren, but the proper growth at the shoulders is not so checked. Bylong observation and experience I have found that for a child having ameasure about twenty-two or twenty-four inches; a waist of twenty-twoinches will be found, according to the age or build of the child, toaccompany shoulders of twenty-two, twen ty-four, twenty-six,twenty-eight, thirty, and thirty-two inches, thus aftbrding six standard measurements across the shoulders of the garment for a singlestandard measurement for the waist. For a twenty-four-inch waist thereare about five sizes of shoulders, ranging from twenty-four tothirty-two inches; for a twenty-siX-inch waist, four sizes, ran gin gfrom twenty-eight to thirty-four inches; and for a twenty-eight-inchwaist, three sizes of shoulders, ranging from thirty to thirty-fourinches; and it is found sufficient for all practical purposes of a goodand easy fit to allow two, or about two, inches difference in thesuccessive sizes, whether of the waist or of the shoulders.

Heretofore manufacturers have almost despaired of any possibility ofestablishing a trade in such articles, and families have been compelledto make such garments as best they could, and with every possiblevariety of indilferent success, and often producing articles mostirksome to the wearer. To supply the market, therefore, with every gradeand size of these garments adapted to every age, and constructed onscientific principles of measurement and in proper relative proportionsin their different parts, so that they may be procured as readily, andwith the same assurance of getting afit, as a glove, and also to open upa field for manufacturing enterprise heretofore but little worked, isthe object of my invention.

Only two measurements need be furnished by the purchaser in order to besupplied with the ready-made article complete and adapted for immediateuse on the person.

The above-described method of obtaining measurements is not confined tochildrens bodies or corsets, but is also equally adapted to womenscorsets, as per the following scale:

For a waist of eighteen inches I make the shoulders of thirty-four orthirty-six inches; for a waist of twenty inches, thirty-four,thirty-siX, thirty-eight, and forty inches; for a waist of twenty-twoinches, thirty-six, thirtyeight, and forty inches; for awaist oftwentyfour inches, thirty-six, thirty-eight, forty, and forty-twoinches; for a waist of twenty-six inches, thirty-eight, forty,forty-two, and forty-four inches; for at waist of twenty-eight inches,forty, forty-two, forty-four, forty-six, and forty-eight inches; for awaist of thirty inches, forty-two, forty-four, forty-six, andforty-eight inches.

By my new plan of a graduated series of shoulder measurements, inconnection with a given and constant measurement for the waist, basedupon the laws of growth of the person, I am enabled to provide an entireseries of shoulder measurements adapted to any given waist size, varyingfrom the narrowest shoulders to the broadest, and scaled or graduated tomeet the changes in the shapes of growing children, and the differentdevelopments in the shoulders and busts of ladies of the same sizearound the waist, and this without the need of any special appliances inthe corset itself for tightening up or letting out or filling up, so asto make it fit across the shoulders, such, for instance, as lacings,cotton springs, aircushions, rubber bands around the shoulders,different rows of fastenings, strings or cords in pockets around theshoulders, 850., for some such adjuncts or appliances must be used withordinary corsets cut (as they are expressly) to be enlarged orcontracted at pleasure, in order to adapt them to the wearer.

By my shoulder measurements, graduated relatively to a given waistmeasurement, none of these expensive and troublesome devices arerequired to vary the shoulder measurement; the corset is adapted andready for use and a proper fit at once; it is simple and not liable toget out of order, and does not require constant adjustment; and in theold mode of measuring and making corsets such means of adjustment werenecessary, because a corset with a given waist and a given size ofshoulder or bust will fit comparatively few people; but, with a givenwaist and by varyin g the size of the corset about the shoulders, thecorsets with the same waist may be adapted to very many different peopleof widely different forms in other respects.

Heretofore, in the old practice in the manufacture of childrens corsets,there has been but one measurement-viz., that around the waistand inever case where they have had shoulder-support there has been but onesize of shoulder to any given waist size.

By my improvement of the two measurements, one fixed or determined, andthe other having a gradual increment, a complete outfit, covering allthe changes in the growing shape from childhood to womanhood can beobtained.

Any number of shoulder sizes may be made for a given waist size, and theincrements or graduations of the former may be by even or odd numbers ofinches, or by fractions of inches.

Growing out of the discovery of the anatomical law which has promptedthis new system of measuring, I facilitate and economize the manufactureof my corsets, because I have certain fixed and absolute standardswhereby to cut the material, using for this purpose sets ofpattern-guides to out from, preferably brassbound, each being of theshape adapted for the two measurements above named, as well as in theother outlines, to the corset desired.

Once made, these patterns (of course enough larger than the sewed pieceof material to allow for cording, binding, hemming, &c.,) arepermanently available, and need no change or variations for particularpersons, or for changing fashions, for they are prepared in accord withthe human form in all its varied sizes. This fact alone forciblyillustrates the great value and economy and simplicity of my new plan ofmeasurement and cutting, and it at once permits the abandonment of thepresent inconvenient and costly practices of either measuring theindividual in order to make a special corset to fit her, or of so.making them that they must afterward be changed in form, and tightenedor loosened to adapt them to the person, with the risk of distorting onepart in the attempt to bring to the shape another part.

I claim- In the manufacture of corsets, the method above described ofcutting variable measurements for the shoulders relatively to a givenmeasurement for the waist, by means of the described series ofcutting-out patterns, having a given waist measurement and graduated orvarying shoulder measurements, substantially as set forth.

HARRIET G. EMERY.

Witnesses:

JOHN J. HALSTED, GEO. T. SMALLWOOD.

